Another Baby

The doctor stepped out of the theatre tiredly, exhaustion on his face. He looked at the sea of anxious faces in the waiting room and the lobby, the Mafia Don and his immediate family, six children or was it seven, he thought as he rubbed his forehead wearily, and a host of other people including a number of men who were obviously the Don’s guards.

All of them had turned, as one, to look at him. He could see the fear, the way the elder children watched him with bated breath. And he thought of the young woman inside the operation theatre he had just left, who had fought so valiantly, despite going into a preterm labor which had in all probability, been brought on by stress.

He sighed as the Mafia Don strode to him, his expression enough to make anyone feel alarmed. The doctor discreetly took a few steps back but he was not frightened, just cautious, he told himself.

“She is ok, your wife is still unconscious but the surgery went off well.’ He said it quickly and felt vindicated when he